Written by

Bob Minzesheimer
USA Today

Stephen King, who has written more than 50 novels and created hundreds of characters, says "only one interested me enough" to deserve his own sequel.

That's Danny Torrance, the young boy with psychic powers in "The Shining" (1977), who survived an abusive, drunk father and the horrors at the Overlook Hotel. In King's long-awaited sequel, "Doctor Sleep," now on sale, a middle-aged Dan, haunted by memories and ghosts, struggles with his drinking and other demons.

King, 66, says that for years, readers asked, "What happened to that kid from The Shining?" He would joke that Danny met Charlene ...